Blog >> Designers Republic go out of business - RIP

27 Jan 09 / 10:00 / Joe Hedges

CATEGORIES: Culture / Design / Trends /

Designers Republic go out of business - RIP

I am shocked this morning, finding out that Designers Republic have moved off the chart leaves a strange feeling. For many years now they have been an industry icon, with many designers being influenced by their simple and iconographic approach to design. It seems sad to me that a company that has given so much to the industry has suffered the first blow of the current economic downturn. Why them? after-all, they have always seemed to be the most unlikely to leave the arena.

My predictions earlier this month was that we would start to see some larger design agencies and consultancies bite the dust, but to tell the truth, I was expecting some of the more typical agencies to go before we would see someone like DR. But then after reading a comment by founder Ian Anderson on how it had started to grow in the direction of a standard agency structure, you can start to understand why this could have happened.

It seems the things that happen in these types of economies has happened, lost pitches, over staffing and burden and of course, the dreaded 'cant pay, wont pay' client. Leaving that gaping hole in cash flow, the result being that one of the most admired agencies are forced out of the arena. It's easy to say that du-diligence should have been tighter, but I know from personal experience, how unseen these things can be, and how easy it is to loose site of the philosophy that has given you strength in the first place.

Lets hope that they rise from the ashes like a phoenix.